‘Creating a

supportive work

environment for

academics in third

level settings’

Some findings from

the Irish Study

Dr Andrew Loxley, Trinity College Dublin, School of Education.

Dr Aidan Kenny, Teachers’ Union of Ireland, Dublin Institute of Technology

Dr Marie Clarke, University College Dublin, School of Education

RESEARCH PROJECT

• EHEA statement (2014)

• Education International

• Research, 10 Country Reports

• European Report

• Irish Country Report IFUT-TUI

• Collaboration TCD-UCD-DIT

RESEARCH APPROACH

• Case Studies

• Numeric and non-numeric

• Mixed method

• Interviews and questionnaire

• Statistical and qualitative analysis

OUR PRESENTATION

• Contextualising the Irish Higher Education

system – a few words & numbers

• Academic Workers in Irish Higher

Education

• The Education International Study

• Some of the findings from the Irish sample

• Irish GDP on HE = 1.36%

(5.6% on all education) (OECD

mean = 1.5% & 5.3%)*

• Cost per student = €9,102

• 2.9% of all public spending

(€61.2 billion)

or €1.8 billion goes to HE

• HE accounts for 19% of all

state educational expenditure

• 95% of funding distributed by

per capita (i.e. student

numbers)

• 164,799 full-time students

• 90,341in universities

• 65,340 in IoTs

• 9,118 in colleges

CONTEXTUALIZING IRISH HE:

SOME HEADLINE NUMBERS

* Education at a Glance [2012 data] (OECD, 2015)

FUNDING OF THE SYSTEM

2007 2010 2014 % Decrease

Universities 723 654 522 28

IoTs 525 462 354 33

Colleges 58 58 44 25

State funding for supported HEIs (HEA 2014) [€millions]

STUDENT PARTICIPATION: 1965-2014

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

200000

Source HEA (2016)

STUDENT PARTICIPATION & STAFFING

2006/07 2010/11 2014/15

IoT Academic Staff 4,799 4,759 4,252

UG 51,322 73,004 79,297

PG 1,565 5,376 6,924

Total Students 52,887 78,380 86,221

University Academic Staff 4,537 4,701 4,297

UG 76,545 85,443 83,929

PG 24,194 29,364 26,846

Total Students 100,739 114,807 110,775

Excluding research staff and includes full & part-time enrollments except

2006/07 IoTs

TERTIARY SPENDING PER STUDENT (OECD 2012 DATA)

Education at a Glance (OECD, 2015)

Grey = public expenditure Blue = private expenditure

TERTIARY SPENDING PER STUDENT (OECD 2012 DATA)

Education at a Glance (OECD, 2015)

STUDENT COSTS

Source: OECD 2014 [2011 data]

HIGHER EDUCATION LABOURFORCE IN IRELAND

• 23,507 staff in state supported HEIs (2015)

• Universities = 14,316 [4,298 academics; 5,156

researchers; 4,861; support] (2015)

• IoTs = 8,237 [4,399 academics; 408 researchers; 2,816

support] (2015)

• Colleges = 251 academic: 253 support (2011)

Status 2000 2009 2012

Part-time Male 445,009 688,147 754,455

Part-time Female 348,712 636,034 724,993

Full-time Male 823,289 1,145,871 1,163,130

Full-time Female 406,125 738,209 787,068

INCREASE IN ACADEMIC WORKERS

ACROSS OECD (OECD, 2014)

ACADEMIC LABOUR : UNIVERSITY SECTOR

2003 2006 2010 2011 2015

Full-time

Permanent3,215 3,516 3,790 4,701* 3,441

Full-time

Temporary/Cont

ract648 747 568 - 519

Part-time

(WTE)*243 274 397 - 337

Total 4,106 4,537 4,755 4701 4,297

*Includes permanent and temporary staff

Research Staff (2015) = 5,156; Temp = 4068, Perm = 1,088

ACADEMIC LABOUR : IOT SECTOR

Contract

Status2007 2008 2009 2010 2015

Permanent 3,406 3,339 3,231 3,078 2,669

CID 504 634 703 767 1,176

Temp 498 476 509 513 377

Total 4,799 4,845 4,842 4,759 4,252

Research Staff (2015) = 408; temp = 323, perm = 84

THE EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL

STUDY (TUI-IFUT)

• Some demographics

• Institutional Management

• Work Conditions

• Teaching & Learning

• Research & Publishing

Full report available at http://www.tui.ie/_fileupload/Third%20Level%20Report.pdf

THE EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL-TUI-IFUT

IRISH STUDY

Union Membership Response % response

TUI 3,881 718 18

IFUT 1,900 330 17

Totals 5,781 1,187 20

The Irish Sample & Response rates

DEMOGRAPHICS

• TUI Male = 60% TUI Female = 40%

• IFUT Male = 53% IFUT Female = 46%

• TUI Age = 51% between 41-50 & 26% between 51-60

• IFUT Age = 40% between 41-50 & 31% between 51-60

CONTRACT STATUS

Permanent % Fixed Term % Other %

TUI 83 7 10

IFUT81 13 8

YEARS WORKING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Years TUI % IFUT % Combined %

1-5 4.6 5.5 5

6-10 18.7 16.6 19

11-15 29.2 27.2 29

16-20 22.6 17.9 21

21-25 11.9 12.8 12

26-30 6.3 8.3 7

31-35 4.8 6.2 5

36-40 1.4 4.5 2

SOME FINDINGS FROM THE IRISH SAMPLE:

INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT

1 2 3 4 5

Top-level management

are providing competent

leadership

TUI 5 13 19 25 38

IFUT 5 17 29 19 30

Combined 5 15 21 23 36

Lack of staff

involvement in decision

making is a real

problem

TUI 38 20 15 12 15

IFUT 29 24 25 12 10

Combined 36 21 18 12 13

1 = strongly agree 5 = strongly disagree

SOME FINDINGS FROM THE IRISH SAMPLE:

INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT

1 2 3 4 5

There is a top-down

management style

TUI 57 15 8 6 13

IFUT 48 26 12 8 6

Combined 55 18 9 7 11

There is a strong

performance orientation

TUI 9 13 36 19 23

IFUT 18 26 31 17 7

Combined 12 17 34 18 19

1 = strongly agree 5 = strongly disagree

WORK CONDITIONS

1 2 3 4 5 Total

TUI 6 14 30 38 11 704

IFUT 7 14 29 39 10 280

Combined 7 15 30 38 10

‘Job Satisfaction’ (%) [1 = ‘very low’ 5 = ‘very high’]

1 2 3 4 5 Total

TUI 34 40 18 6 2 708

IFUT 24 42 24 7 3 280

Combined 32 39 20 6 2 896

‘Change in work conditions’ (%) [1’ = ‘very much deteriorated’, ‘5’ = ‘very much

improved ]

WORK CONDITIONS

1 2 3 4 5

Classroom conditionsTUI 8 24 34 28 6

IFUT 6 20 30 31 12

Combined 8 23 33 28 8

Library facilities

TUI 6 14 28 41 12

IFUT 5 8 26 40 21

Combined 8 23 33 28 8

1 = poor 5 = excellent

TEACHING & LEARNING

1 2 3 4 5

At my institution there are

adequate training courses

for enhancing teaching

courses

TUI 16 27 31 20 6

IFUT 9 18 39 25 10

Combined 14 25 33 22 6

I am encouraged to

improve my instructional

skills in response to

teaching evaluations

TUI 26 21 31 18 4

IFUT 13 16 36 27 8

Combined22 20 32 21 5

1 = strongly disagree 5 = strongly agree

TEACHING & LEARNING

1 2 3 4 5

I spend more time than I

would like teaching basic

skills due to student

deficiencies

TUI 7 12 25 30 28

IFUT 12 15 32 21 20

Combined 6 13 27 28 26

Since I started teaching

the diversity of students

has increased

TUI 2 7 15 28 48

IFUT 4 11 20 37 27

Combined4 7 16 31 42

1 = strongly disagree 5 = strongly agree

RESEARCH

1 2 3 4 5

The pressure to raise

external research funds

has increased since my

first appointment

TUI 28 18 27 13 14

IFUT 53 12 10 8 19

Combined 38 16 21 11 15

There is increased

pressure to publish in

international high ranked

journals

TUI 21 20 32 17 10

IFUT 55 15 7 9 14

Combined32 19 24 15 11

1 = strongly agree 5 = strongly disagree

RESEARCH

1 2 3 4 5

Publications and citations

influence career

progression

TUI 27 20 21 17 16

IFUT 59 13 4 10 14

Combined 36 18 16 14 16

I am provided with

adequate

supports to attend

national and international

conferences

TUI 11 15 26 19 29

IFUT 6 14 26 24 30

Combined 10 15 25 21 29

1 = strongly agree 5 = strongly disagree

THANK YOU

Contact details:

Andrew Loxley, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin LOXLEYA@tcd.ie

Marie Clarke, School of Education University College Dublin marie.clarke@ucd.ie

Aidan Kenny, teachers’ union of Ireland akenny@tui.ie , Twitter @AidanKenny2Copy of research report click URL

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279199009_Creating_a_supportive_environment_for_academic

s_in_higher_education_Country_Report_Ireland

mailto:LOXLEYA@tcd.iemailto:marie.clarke@ucd.iemailto:akenny@tui.iehttps://twitter.com/AidanKenny2